Europe awaits!

Finally the time has come to say a temporary goodbye to Adelaide, to the family and to Piper, our dog.     I found it quite hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially Piper who was being well looked after by the Palmer family, and to leave our lifestyle in Aldinga Beach.

However it is time to head back to Europe, to see Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy, and to see some of our friends, and to visit Camping Manjastre again.    

Our first stop was the Adelaide Airport hotel, which was not quite two years old, and a very comfortable establishment too.    Industrial in its design, and quite the modern establishment, it came with a pleasant bar area, restaurant and a coffee machine in our room.   The latter being very important to us.   The super king bed was also very comfortable, as was the little lounge area.

The view from our room.    The tiled plaza between the airport and the carpark, which was quite a pleasant area, now that the trees have grown somewhat.   The hotel was attached to the airport buildings so that we only needed to walk a few metres to walk from the hotel to the airport.

And one may wonder why we needed to stay in a hotel, when all we needed to do was be driven to the airport three hours before the plane was due to leave.   This was not Heathrow, where one could be delayed due to the M25 being jammed with traffic, or the possibility of snow making roads impassable or any other likely problems which could delay us or not getting to the airport at all. 

Our stay in the hotel came about due to Walter misreading the time of departure, as he thought it was 9.50 in the morning, which meant someone had to get up early to take us, rather than 9.50 in the evening.  As he had booked the hotel, and paid for it, we thought it best to not waste our money.

And in fact it gave us a chance to have a good rest before the flight, and to be tourists in Adelaide during the day.  Plus we had a lovely coffee with Emma in the morning, as well as having a look at her work place.   We then went on to have a delicious lunch with Donna and Andreena. 

We had such an interesting day too, looking around North Terrace and the eastern end of Rundle Street.   Such beautiful old buildings, although new tall buildings are gradually nudging out the small old ones.   Adelaide loves knocking buildings down.  We are always amazed when driving on the streets, to find a bare plot of land, where only the week before there was a perfectly good house. 

But back to the area behind Rundle Street, which has been done up beautifully and a thriving area too, by the looks of all the restaurants.   A business district surrounds this part of town, where once there was a wholesale market.   A long time ago, but luckily the buildings were retained.

North Terrace with its beautiful park bordering the street, and old university buildings, museum, art gallery and library on the edge of the park.   Unfortunately the buildings on the city side of the street have become a mixture of old and new, with the new not always complementing the old.

We had a look around the relatively new, for us, state library.    Plenty of glass and interesting modern architecture.    And an airy cafe.    It was a pleasure to visit this library.    We walked into the Mortlock library, to have a look at the very old building, built in the Renaissance style with a mansard roof, and its contents, which consisted of displays which reflected life in South Australia, and historical events, plus shelves of old books.

This part of the library was opened in 1861, in the South Australian Institute buildings, and it was designed to house a range of books and cultural collections.  It went through a number of names, The Jervois Wing in 1861, the Bastyan Wing in 1967, the Spence Wing in 2003, until finally it become known as the Mortlake Chamber in 2004.    A man with the surname of Mortlake, who in 1986, gave a large donation to the library, roughly in the vicinity of a million or two dollars, and when the chamber was renovated in 2004, it became the Mortlake Chamber.   It is definitely worth a visit, not just for the building which was very beautiful but also for the displays on the ground floor.

We boarded our Emirates flight, after sitting for a while in the departure lounge in Adelaide.   There is a new international terminal being built in Adelaide, which desperately needs it.   At the moment a few of the domestic departure lounges are partitioned off, in order to create an international departures area.   So small town attitude.   But better times await for the future.

We squashed ourselves into the economy seats, which appear to have become narrower since we last flew economy.   The one trip where we flew premium economy and then business class has spoiled us, without a doubt.    In fact, once we settled in, and relaxed, the 13 hours went by very quickly, and I was even able to sleep for a number of hours.

Dubai was fascinating.    Such a busy hub, more so than Changi, Singapore, I think.   However, Changi has more quiet, comfortable places to rest, Dubai was just full of people.   The toilets were spotless though.   We no longer have lounge access which was why we probably found Dubai not so restful.    Coffee was very good.

Then it was off again, on a big A380.    Lots of room on this big brute, even in economy.   And the seats were bigger too.   A fantastic flight and so comfortable.   Service was excellent on Emirates, and the staff very friendly.  We had not been expecting this aspect when flying Emirates.

We landed in Nice, which was a little scary.  I turned off the camera view on my screen, as landing on a small piece of land, which jutted out into the sea, was too scary for my liking.   Such a huge plane to have to land on a small piece of land.   But they managed thank goodness, but one did feel the braking system coming on quite strongly.    Just as well, otherwise we would have been in the ocean.

Nice airport.   What can I say!   It was a shock to the system.   Dirty and disorganised, plus chaotic.   I have only ever taken people to this airport in order for them to fly back to the UK, or onto other destinations.  I have never actually arrived there by plane.    I am always aware that one has to be careful around Nice, regarding theft, mostly of wallets and handbags.   It is the only airport where I will not use the free wifi either.    There is quite a bit of deprivation around Nice, as there is in all the large towns and cities around here, but Nice has a busy airport, and a prime spot for a bit of crime.   Anyway we survived the experience, but it hit home that there was another side to the beautiful and affluent Cote D'Azur.   The coffee was unbelievably bad too.   So much so I could not drink it.

But things improved, the staff members at the Europecar rental agency were very helpful and  friendly, and we came away with an Audi for a very reasonable price.   A beautiful car to drive, and it has lots of toys in it, to keep us happy.

I drove into the city centre, and Walter helped the navigation system to find our way to the hotel, an Ibis Budget hotel.    The street was very narrow, and with no parking it was a little hair raising.   Walter booked into the hotel while I cruised around, trying not to hit pedestrians, other cars and scooter drivers.   We then parked in one of those French underground car parks that have narrow entrances and even narrower parking spaces.   But we managed, although it took me quite a few attempts to actually park the car.

The Ibis Budget hotel.   The rooms and hallways had been recently decorated, so of course spotlessly clean and fresh.   The breakfast the next morning was superb, no cheap tacky food there.

We went for a walk that evening, along the street with very pretty and well maintained buildings. 

In the centre of the road there were new tramlines, which made the road on either side extremely narrow.   However the trams provide a much needed public transport system.   Interestingly the tram lines were set in amongst beautifully green lawns. 

I am not sure what this building is, but it was rather attractive.

We had dinner at a popular pizza restaurant.   Excellent pizzas and friendly service.

More attractive buildings.    We never did get into the centre of Nice, due to needing to get to Camping Manjastre at a reasonable time.

Instead we headed to the Geant shopping centre to get our groceries, and have a spot of lunch at our favourite restaurant.   Good value meals there.    I think I look a little jet lagged still.

Our view at Camping Manjestre, when the sun was shining.

All set up, and it did not take too long either.   We so enjoyed the sunshine yesterday.

It is very quiet here, only a handful of campers really.   And today it has been cold, and rainy, with the average temperature about 15 degrees.   So after having coffee in Le Lavandou, and doing some shopping, we spent the day in the caravan with the heater on. Now one might say, that we have travelled a long way to spend the day in a caravan, with the heater on, when we could have been sitting in a large home, in Adelaide, with the heater on.    Same temperatures, same type of rain.   

The difference is we are in France!   And in Europe!